Photo: Sen. Scott Flippo
Arkansas Sen. Scott Flippo of Bull Shoals is set to serve another leadership position in the legislature. Senator Flippo has been elected as the upper chamber’s next Senate Republican leader, according to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette report. Flippo now serves as the Senate majority whip, a position his colleagues elected him to in December 2018.
The Senate Republican leader role is now held by Sen. Bart Hester of Cave Springs.
According to the report, Hester says he has been selected as the nominee to be the president pro tempore for 2021-23.
Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, says he didn’t seek nomination for the leadership position, but will ask the full Senate to elect him to it.
The Senate includes 26 Republicans and nine Democrats.
The 35-member Senate will select the president pro tempore-designate at the end of the fiscal session, which started Wednesday and is expected to wrap up by the end of next week.
During the past several years, the Republican-controlled Senate has typically selected the Republican nominee.
Hickey says he wasn’t on the ballot to be the nominee because “everybody knows I am going to run on the floor.” He says the Senate president pro tempore represents every member of that chamber.
Hester says he knows things can change quickly at the state Capitol, and Hickey is very qualified to be the next president pro tempore.
Both Hickey and Hester have served in the Senate since 2013. In 2018, Hickey lost his bid to be the Republican nominee for the top leadership post to Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs.
Hendren has been president pro tempore since 2019, and his term in the post ends in 2021. He is seeking re-election to a two-year Senate term in the Nov. 3 general election. He said he’ll probably decide whether to run for governor in 2022 “sometime after the fiscal session and the dust settles from this coronavirus crisis that we find ourselves in.”
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